"Police Adjective" and Attunement to the Significance of Things

Craig Fox

doi:10.58519/aesthinv.v3i2.11935

Authors

Craig Fox University of Pennsylvania

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58519/aesthinv.v3i2.11935

Keywords:

aesthetics, meaning, criticism, Corneliu Porumboiu, Ludwig Wittgenstein, film

Abstract

In this paper I consider Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective (Romania, 2009) as an instance of a puzzling work of art. Part of what is puzzling about it is the range of extreme responses to it, both positive and negative. I make sense of this puzzlement and try to alleviate it, while considering the film alongside Ludwig Wittgenstein’s arguably puzzling “Lectures on Aesthetics” (from 1938). I use each work to illuminate possible understandings of the other. The upshot is that it is is plausible to regard both as engaged, in part, in preparing us to make sense both of themselves, and then also of other works.

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Author Biography

Craig Fox, University of Pennsylvania

Associate Professor, Philosophy Department of Communication, Design, and Culture Associate Director, University Honors Program California University of Pennsylvania Box 100 250 University Ave. California, PA 15419 USA 1 724 938-4068 (office)

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